1 year, full-time, fixed-term contract
Why are we here?
The Observer’s promise is in the name. The Observer bears witness; the best of journalism being curious minds at work. It loves the arts and ideas, both for their own sake and because they can change lives. It’s proudly progressive, but has no party allegiance. It’s open to different arguments and its editorial independence is non-negotiable. We are building a new Observer across print, audio and digital. We’re here to build journalism that lasts.
What’s my personal contribution?
You will work with The Observer’s data team to produce and publish data-driven journalism projects specialising in AI.
We are the home of the Global AI Index, which is the first independent, comprehensive index that benchmarks 83 nations on their Artificial Intelligence capabilities, focusing on investment, innovation, and implementation, designed to rank countries by their total AI capacity, tracking which countries are leading in the global AI race.
What are my responsibilities?
In collaboration with the rest of the team, and reporting to the Head of Data and Graphics, you will:
•
Wrangle, extract and analyse a large number of different datasets relating to our AI research projects
•
Refine and improve our data collection, analysis tools and general data practice
•
Contribute to analysis of our data to extract key findings for editorial and commercial AI content
What do I know? Useful knowledge, skills and experience.
•
2+ years experience working with Python
•
Experience using specialised tools to collect data (e.g. web scraping and APIs)
•
Experience working with large volumes of text data and natural language processing techniques
•
Experience building robust data ingestion systems and pipelines in production
•
Experience working with real world datasets of varying data quality and dealing with issues like missing or incorrect data points, inconsistent data structures
What do I show? Essential behaviours.
•
Enthusiasm for communicating with data and visualising data
•
Strong attention to detail, well organised and a proactive problem-solver
•
Optimistic, can-do attitude with an ability to learn new skills quickly
•
An interest in the world around and an interest in reading the news from a variety of sources
What skills are essential?
•
2+ years’ experience working in Python
•
Experience using specialised tools to handle data, e.g. collection via web scraping and APIs, Pandas, matplotlib, spaCy
Desirable
•
Enthusiasm for communicating with data and visualising it
•
Interest in technology, economics, business and other social forces that are shaping the world
•
Experience constructing or working with indices
What do I show? Essential behaviours
•
Optimistic, can-do attitude
•
Problem solver
•
A desire to get to know our members
•
A pleasure to work with: positive, enthusiastic and open to ideas
Salary
Circa £60K
Salary and Benefits
•
Competitive salary
•
30 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays•
•
Pension
•
Cycle to work scheme
•
Free snacks and drinks in the newsroom
Working with us
We are a progressive business with a diverse, motivated team; a mix of veterans and young people starting out on their careers. We are committed to equal opportunities and creating an inclusive environment for all our employees, and we welcome applicants regardless of ethnic origin, national origin, gender, race, colour, religious beliefs, disability, sexual orientation or age.
To apply please send a letter and a PDF of your CV to recruitment@observer.co.uk. You should include the name of the job that you are applying for in the email subject line.